About Us
The Change Gym
The Change Gym is an Australian business based on the Gold Coast, Queensland. We help organisations develop their readiness for change by utilising tried and proven methods. These methods include repeatable and embeddable systems and tools, founded on solid theory and research, and backed by real-world experience.
Our goal is to teach these ideas and systems to others, so that organisations can run their own ‘change gyms’ – right inside their organisations. This will, in time, become an integral part of their success strategy. Now more than ever, organisations need a dependable change readiness strategy to help them adapt and proactively thrive in a rapidly changing world.
The Logic
There’s a well-known saying: you can lead a horse to water but can’t make him drink.
The horse isn’t interested in your brilliant ideas about what he should do. Unless he is ready to drink, the water will remain in the trough.
The same thing applies to change. Your strategic ideas may be brilliant, but that doesn’t mean your people wil be ready to wholeheartedly engage. In most organisations, it’s not hard to find people who are jaded with change, resistent to it, and dipassionate about trying anything new. Frustrating for sure, but that’s the reality.
So, what can we do about it? We can build little ‘change gyms’ inside our organisations. These are not physical places – they are learning places. Places where people can learn how to get better at change, and learn how to create systems that will allow positive changes to flourish. Places of mental, social, and physical health and well-being.
If this idea resonates with you, I invite you to contact me and let’s explore more of these ideas together.
Steve Barlow
Our Values
These values drive us, what we do, and how we do it:
- We value nurturing people and providing them with meaningful growth opportunities so they can thrive with purpose and achieve growing levels of well-being.
- We value systems and structures that align with an organisation’s purpose, adapt to changing contexts, pursue opportunities that service their vision, and improve performance by progressively solving problems.
- We value the power of education to open growth opportunities and to create self-reliance. Our goal is not to do for but to do with – to teach organisations how to grow and maintain their change readiness moving forward.
- We value accepting responsibility and accountability for actions, commitment to high-performance standards, and developing systems that measure progress.
- We value what businesses provide and their power to positively influence society.
In essence, it comes down to love and responsibility. Love reflects the nurture and growth of people, the value the business provides its clients, and how it makes the world a better place. Responsibility reflects an appropriate and necessary response to love – taking personal responsibility for one’s growth and performance.
We value these, and we see our business contributing to these values by helping people and organisations adapt, learn, innovate, and grow.
Our People
Our team is led by Steve Barlow, owner and CEO of The Change Gym.
Steve has an academic background in education and psychology, graduating from the Australian Catholic University, Macquarie University, and the University of Sydney. Steve is a Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders (ANZ) and a member of the Change Management Institute.
Previously, Steve delivered anger management and conflict resolution training to inmates in a maximum-security prison. He worked in the charter boat industry, running a 250-seat charter boat on Sydney Harbour and All The Best Charters. He was also a university lecturer delivering change readiness training to Masters students.
Steve is the author or co-author of numerous books, including:
- Vocational education and training for adult prisoners and offenders in Australia: Research readings (S.Dawe Eds), NCVER, 2007
- People Get Ready: Change Readiness in Organizations, Redequip, 2011
- The Prisoner (Eds Crewe, B., & Bennett, J.), Routledge, 2012
- Understanding Leaders: A Guide to Exceptional Leadership, Redequip, 2013
- Building Sustainable Organisations: The Four Pillars of Change, Redequip, 2014
- Ancient Wisdom and the Art of Change, Redequip, 2015
- Big Performer: how change fitness creates flexible organisations, Caidex, 2021
Steve is supported by other members of his team.
Steve Barlow BA, MEd, PhD, Grad Dip Ed, Grad Cert Ed, Cert IV TAE, FIML
Our Story
How did we get to this point—the point of delivering change readiness training to people in various workplaces?
It all started in 2002, when Steve Barlow was delivering anger management training to maximum-security prisoners. The correctional system identified who should receive Steve’s training based on their perceived need, but Steve soon realised something was missing. People might need help, but that doesn’t mean they are ready to receive help. His programs always worked much better for those inmates who were ready to change than for those who weren’t.
But what does readiness actually mean? And how could you reliably tell the difference between people who are ready for change and those who aren’t? These questions had not received much attention, so they became the focus of Steve’s PhD research. Eventually, the NSW Institute for Educational Research would award Steve Barlow the 2010 ‘Outstanding Thesis Award’ for his PhD thesis on change readiness.
Having completed the PhD, Steve began The Change Gym in 2010. The aim was to help organisations develop by helping their people grow their change readiness. This initial aim is still the core of our business but it has expanded to encompass other aspects of organisational reality. It has matured over time.
We are committed to remain on the cutting edge of change readiness research and application.
Testimonials
What my team and I appreciated most was the fresh approach to change that Steve takes. The Change Gym transcends details. It supports the attitudes and commitment necessary for success in the process of change – small or large.
I hope that many more people will hear your message and realise its worth. I know it's changed my life - and is echoing through much of what I do, and for that I'm ever grateful to you.
Dr Barlow has done an a amazing job developing a deep and potent coaching and educational system. His academic research surrounding Change Fitness is excellent and its practical applications work in literally any context that involves change. It is a solid foundation for anyone undergoing change. I have personally had my life transformed through the Personal Change Fitness Program. Dr Barlow is able to see both the scope of a situation and the details necessary to create successful change in that moment. He is an integrative thinker, a synthesiser and a professional with the rare combination of being a successful scientist, communicator, and practitioner. I recommend his work for coaches and business managers looking to institute change processes based on solid research evidence with truly practical, lasting results.
It has been a privilege being a part of Dr. Steve's program- organisational change readiness. This program is a game changer for me as an Agile Coach. It has highlighted the importance for me to fully understand the deep organisational change language as well as the difference between managing change and change management. This program authentically highlights all these on a whole new level. My overall awareness has grown on how to approach change processes and been subsequently enhanced. I have received incredible value throughout and would recommend it to anybody leading people in, with or through change. I am excited to continue with the next phase of personal development and grow my capabilities with the personal change fitness program.
I'd been working as a leadership coach for 8 years already when I discovered The Change Gym and the deeply important work Dr. Steve has done in the area of developing a program to assist coaching clients with building psychological capacity for change. Who knows what changes will take place in the next 40 years? We can anticipate that that world will look very different, but the good news is that we can be ready for anything, if we develop our change fitness. I'm very excited about his products that serve my own coaching over the next decades.
Steve's approach to change management readiness is definitely an important aspect for all aspects of business - change is always happening so, it is best to be ready for it. I would recommend Steve without hesitation to any and all change management professionals
Steve's Change fitness program has helped me enormously to understand the drivers of change and consequently build activities that will help people stick to the program (and create a real impact in their lives). Working with Dr. Steve has been a truly pleasant and inspiring experience.
Dr Steve Barlow has developed extensive expertise to help coaches with the psychology of change fitness. Steve teaches coaches how to identify and measure the psychological capacity for change. And God knows change is a much-desired capacity at all levels in the workplace. It is rarely applied throughout the employment structures of organisations, and coaching managers to cope with its tools is more helpful than most HR people seem to recognize theses days.